Those criminals who say they are muslim!
A young woman recently stoned to death in Somalia
first pleaded for her life, a witness has told the
BBC.
"Don't kill me, don't kill me," she said,
according to the man who wanted to remain
anonymous. A few minutes later, more than 50 men
threw stones.
Human rights group Amnesty International says the
victim was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped.
Initial reports had said she was a 23-year-old
woman who had confessed to adultery before a
Sharia court.
The witness says she was forced into a hole,
buried up to her neck then pelted with stones
until she died in front of more than 1,000 people.
Cameras were banned from the public stoning, but
print and radio journalists who were allowed to
attend estimated that the woman, Aisha Ibrahim
Duhulow, was 23 years old.
However, Amnesty said it had learned she was 13,
and that her father had said she was raped by
three men
When the family tried to report the rape, the girl
was accused of adultery and detained, Amnesty
said.
Convicting a girl of 13 for adultery would be
illegal under Islamic law.
A human rights activist in the town told the BBC
on condition of anonymity that he had received
death threats from the Islamic militia, who accuse
him of spreading false information about the
incident.
He denies having anything to with Amnesty's
report.
'Checked by nurses'
Court authorities have said the woman came to them
admitting her guilt.
She was asked several times to review her
confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia
law and the deserved punishment to apply, they
said.
But a witness who spoke to the BBC's Today
programme said she had been crying and had to be
forced into a hole before the stoning, reported to
have taken place in a football stadium.
"More than 1,000 people arrived there," he said
After two hours, the Islamic administration in
Kismayo brought the lady to the place and when she
came out she said: 'What do you want from me?'"
"They said: 'We will do what Allah has instructed
us'. She said: 'I'm not going, I'm not going.
Don't kill me, don't kill me.'
"A few minutes later more than 50 men tried to
stone her."
The witness said people crowding round to see the
execution said it was "awful".
"People were saying this was not good for Sharia
law, this was not good for human rights, this was
not good for anything."
But no-one tried to stop the Islamist officials,
who were armed, the witness said. He said one boy
was shot in the confusion.
According to Amnesty International, nurses were
sent to check during the stoning whether the
victim was still alive. They removed her from the
ground and declared that she was dead, before she
was replaced so the stoning could continue.
The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a
coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan
Turki, and al-Shabab, the country's main radical
Islamist insurgent organisation.
Mr Turki is on the US list of "financers of
terrorism".
It was the first reported execution by stoning in
the southern port city since Islamist insurgents
captured it.
The BBC had a reporter in the area, but he was
shot dead in Kismayo in June.
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